Santa Barbara County Fair wraps up extended run, sets sights on 2027 event
Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The 2026 Santa Barbara County Fair closed its extended run at the Santa Maria Fairpark on Sunday.
The annual event was lengthened to eight days this year, three more than the typical five days the fair has run for more than 25 years.
On Monday, the Fairpark looked hardly like it did just hours earlier when the fair officially closed for the year at 10 p.m. Sunday night.
“Today, it’s very shocking,” said Santa Maria Fairpark Interim CEO Todd Ventura. “This morning, what used to be a carnival less than eight hours ago is largely already gone. Many of the vendor booths are pulled out at midnight and 1 a.m. to get on to their next event. It’s really it’s really interesting to see this place go from what it was hours ago to where it is today.”
The fair included many changes this year, including a two-weekend schedule, as well as a new layout, larger carnival, alternate parking lot and back entrance, different vendors, booths and many other first time attractions.
“Change was the theme of the year,” said Ventura. “I think a lot of the changes worked really, really well. Are there some things we need to change and tweak a little bit? Absolutely. But by and large, we’re very happy with with the way things played out.”
Ventura pointed out attendance numbers won’t be known for at least a few more days as staff works to add up all the statistics.
“It’s a little bit early for attendance,” said Ventura. “I was actually just looking at some of the numbers this morning. We feel it was very strong. Maybe we didn’t have that one day that was sort of off the charts with attendance, but we certainly had really steady attendance every day. Of course, there’s days that are better than others and weekends are always typically more popular, and I think, the case this year.”
One area where the fair really found success was at the Junior Livestock Show and Auction, which by far exceeded last year’s numbers.
According to the Livestock Superintendned Hailey Rose Switzer, over the two days of the Livestock Auction on Friday and Saturday, the total amount raised was $2,521,233.85.
This year’s amount was approximately $600,000 more than the total amount raised in 2025, a significant and jump from one year to the next.
“I’m really impressed,” Eden Romonde, a Righetti High School FFA student, said Monday morning. “I’m very grateful for all the buyers that came and came out and took their time and supported us.”
For local agriculture students, the money earned through their animal projects will be directed towards any way they choose, with many deciding to save it later for college.
“It was really nice having all the local people come and support us because it means a lot,” Josie Rowley of El Camino 4-H Club said on Monday. “We’ll put it towards good uses.”
Ventura emphasized just how impressive this year’s auction total added up to since the number of animals entered was roughly the same amount as last year.
“You’re seeing more dollars spent per kid, per animal, than previously,” said Ventura. “They are just great numbers and we owe that to the kindness of the business people that we have and the generosity of our community.”
With the 2026 Santa Barbara County Fair now in the history books, Ventura pointed out that planning for next year’s fair is already underway.
“As I was auctioneering on Saturday night, after I sold the last the last goat just before 9 p.m., I told the crowd that was in the barn at that point in time that planning for 2027 begins in about 30 seconds,” said Ventura. “That was no joke. We already are looking at 2027 and the things that we could do differently and the things that we can try to improve.”
As the Santa Maria Fairpark Board of Directors looks ahead, Ventura, who has served on the board since 2023, said it has a vision to move the 34-acre downtown venue and the fair into a new and prosperous future.
“I think they’re going to continue with that vision and try to continue to refine and tweak and make adjustments and make things work better,” said Ventura. “We have what I think is a really solid foundation here and our board has given good input and is really on a collaborative push to make things better. We’ve got some great partnerships with the City of Santa Maria and the (Santa Maria Valley) Chamber of Commerce has been really big for us. We continue to have those meetings and those discussions and see how we can all collaborate to make the Santa Barbara County Fair bigger and better than ever and a better guest experience for everyone.”
Ventura added no dates have been selected for the 2027 fair and a decision is the event will once again cover two weekends is still to be decided.
“I’m guessing the board is going to want to go over two weekends again,” said Ventura. “But again, that’s just a guess. We have to we have to talk about that as a board and make a decision.”
Another important decision the Board of Directors will have to make is who to hire as its permanent CEO.
The Fairpark has been without a permanent CEO since March 2025, with Ventura serving over the past several months ahead of the Santa Maria Valley Strawberry Festival and Santa Barbara County Fair.
Ventura indicated Monday he could potentially remain in the position, or the board may decide to bring someone else into the position.
“I’m very, very grateful this fair season being a director and then sort of thrust into the CEO role,” said Ventura. “I’m very grateful to our community, my board, all the great community partners, the foundation, the Fairpark Foundation was really instrumental. Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without the community, the volunteers. I didn’t really know previously exactly what it took to do this. It’s a lot. Without our community and without some of the people that I previously mentioned, we couldn’t do it. There’s 100% we couldn’t do it, so just feeling very grateful and very, very blessed to live where we do in such a great area.”
